Rain
by mynameisnotholly
Summary: The Doctor and Heather land in a town where a young boy has gone missing in the middle of a thunderstorm. They promise to help find the boy, but discover that not all is as it seems.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or anything else but this story. Enjoy!**

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**Prologue**

_Shots of streets, houses and gardens pouring with rain in quick succession._

**Jamie:** My name is Jamie and I love the rain. At night, the rain taps at your windows, patters on your rooftop and knocks on your door, asking you to come out and play because it is so very very lonely.

_Camera zooms into a closed window on the top floor of a house. A young boy, in his pajamas is looking out. The only light in the room is his night light on the bedside table. It's still raining heavily._

**Jamie:**_ (voice over) _Sometimes I wonder what it wants. Does it just want someone to listen? Because if it does, I am that someone.

_A tall woman- Jamie's mother- comes into the room. She ushers him from the window and closes the curtains._

**Emma:** Come on, Jamie, time for bed.

_She tucks him in. He pulls the cover under his chin. She moves to go._

**Jamie:** Mummy?

**Emma:** Yes, honey?

**Jamie:** Will you read me a bedtime story?

**Emma:** _(sighs regretfully)_ Not tonight, hon. Now go to sleep.

_She switches off the night light and exits the room. Jamie does not close his eyes, but instead stares up at the ceiling._

**Jamie:** _(voice over)_ I can hear the rain. It whispers to me. Can't you hear it too? It talks to me, it wants me to listen. It wants me to come out and play.

_Jamie gets out of bed and puts his slippers and dressing gown on. Peeping through the door, he sees that nobody's around, and so he cautiously goes out into the hallway and down the stairs. His parents are watching TV in the sitting room, stiffly sitting on opposite sides of the settee, not facing him. He creeps behind them and goes through the front door into the downpour. Outside he stares up in wonder at the sky, not seeming to notice that he is getting soaked._

**Jamie:** _(voice over)_ The sky tears itself apart; the lightning versus the thunder, each one terrifying, the rain tearing down to get away. Because that's how I feel now.

_Jamie's face falls: he is now frowning up at the sky, his hair and clothes dripping._

**Jamie: **That's how I've felt ever since... ever since...

_A flash of lightning and a peal of thunder and Jamie vanishes._

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**The rest of the story will be in continuous prose (like normal). I just decided that this bit worked best as a script.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Here you have it: the first installment. Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, etc., but I do own the version of the Doctor and Heather. I'm not actually sure where they fit in in the Doctor's timeline, but he is a mixture of the recent Doctors.**

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**Chapter 1**

Heather gasped for breath between peals of laughter as the TARDIS spun through the time vortex. She clutched at the banister with whitened knuckles, watching as the Doctor scrambled up from the floor where he had just fallen and resumed his lapping of the sparking console. "No, no, no. Don't do that!" he exclaimed as the TARDIS made an odd noise and bunked again. He darted to the controls, flicking levers and turning dials as he muttered ominously to himself. Suddenly, a colossal thump landed both Heather and the Doctor a seat on the ground. Groaning at the stitch in her side, Heather hauled herself to her feet, flashed a grin at the Doctor who was still on the floor, and bounded out through the doors. In the relative silence, the hissing of the hot console and the Doctor's gentle panting seemed loud but for the thundering of rain on the roof. He turned as the door clicked open and Heather stepped back in. Her hair was flat against her face and her dripping clothes were quickly leaving a puddle where she stood. The look on her face gave no doubts as to her thoughts.

"Have you got a coat or something?" Suppressing a chuckle, the Doctor got to his feet and looked around.

"No, but-" He darted to the side of the room and held up a long dark object. "I've got this."

Heather grinned. "That's good enough for me."

They stepped out together, sheltering underneath the umbrella. The street they were in seemed to be quite ordinary. The gutters ran with water and the street was pockmarked with puddles. The hazy light from the street lamps was striped with torrents of rain and even the Doctor's keen eyes could barely make out the numbers on the houses around them. They looked at each other, then the Doctor shrugged his shoulders and guided them over to the nearest house. Luckily it had a porch, and the Doctor took down the umbrella and shook it out, leaning against the wall. He rang the doorbell, and they watched as lights switched on in the front hall and a dark silhouette was framed in the doorway. They heard a fumbling of keys and eventually the door opened. A woman in slippers stood at the doorway, eyes rimmed red from crying and holding a damp handkerchief up to her face. She stared at the soaked figures for a moment, then asked in a wavering voice.

"Are you the police? Is there anything you can do for...?" She broke off, sniffling, as fresh tears welled up in her eyes. In the crashing of the rain behind them, they could barely hear her as she hoarsely said, "Come in." The Heather looked questioningly at the Doctor, who shrugged and swiftly followed the woman into the house. Heather wiped her feet and stepped inside, closing the door against the drenching rain. After taking off her trainers, she frowned as she saw that the Doctor had not thought to take off his shoes, but instead was bouncing about the hallway, looking at the pictures on the wall. Sighing, she intercepted him and took him into the sitting room.

Two fabric corn-coloured sofas dominated the room, facing the TV mounted on the opposite wall. An unlit fireplace faced the window, and a well used coffee table was placed centrally in the room. Two warm standing lamps cast light onto the figure of a hunched man commanding most of the nearest settee. The man was short and balding, and evidently not used to any amount of vigorous exercise. As the Doctor and Heather entered, he was clutching a half empty glass of beer and staring off blindly into the distance. The Doctor bounded into the centre of the room, nearly crashing into the coffee table and as oblivious to the mood as ever. At his appearance, the man visibly shook himself, dispelling the fog from his brain. With a wide beam on his face, the Doctor said, "Hello!" When he got no response, he continued. "I heard you're in a spot of trouble."

A low rumble emanated from the man, breaking out into a mournful chuckle. "Well, yes. That would sum it up quite nicely." He twisted in his seat as the woman came in, carrying a tea tray laden with cups and saucers and a teapot.

"Please, sit down." she said, nodding to the two visitors.

"Thank you." The Doctor settled himself comfortably on the spare sofa. Heather cautiously imitated him. A few moments of awkward silence elapsed while the woman poured the tea. As each person in the room accepted a steaming mug, the Doctor glanced round the room, his eyes settling on a display of photos.

"Is that your son?" The woman nodded silently.

"He'll be in bed about now, won't he?"

The woman gaped at him. "Sorry?"

"Your son. He'll be in bed." The Doctor repeated. The woman made a half-strangled gasping noise and covered her face up with her handkerchief again, her shoulders shaking.

"What's wrong with you?" The man glared, pulling the woman into his shoulder.

"How's that?" Heather could tell the Doctor had no clue how he had offended them.

"Jamie vanished last night."

"How d'you mean, 'vanished'"? asked Heather.

"Disappeared, skedaddled, vamoosed. Is that clear enough for you?"

"Alright!" She paused for a moment. "Have you called the police?"

"Yeah, course we have." The man looked up, regarding them with a new suspicion. "Here, why are you up here asking questions like that? I thought you were supposed to be out there looking for him. Or don't you do that in bad weather? Waiting for it to clear up, are you?"

The Doctor looked morally outraged. "No, of course we're not." Heather saw the light come on in his head as look of understanding came over his face, and he added, "We just came down here to see if there's anything else we could dig up. For the search, I mean."

The man was not convinced. "You don't look very official. How do we even know you're with the police?"

"Ah-ha." said the Doctor triumphantly, settling into his role nicely. He fumbled in his overcoat for a moment then pulled out the psychic paper. Flipping up the cover he extended it to the people opposite. "There we go. That ought to clear things up a bit."

The man scrutinised the paper for a moment, then a look of apologetic understanding came over him. "Very sorry, Detective Inspector. It's just, well, the shock of it all..."

"Yes, yes, quite understandable." said the Doctor, all business now. "Now, can you tell me exactly what happened... tonight, was it?"

"Well, yes. Umm..." The man looked across at the shaking figure of his wife next to him. "I guess it must have been about half past nine, mustn't it, Emma?" The woman sniffled and nodded miserably. "Yes. Emma had just put Jamie off to bed. We were downstairs watching the tele. I guess we were there for maybe half an hour? Then, I went upstairs to check that Jamie was asleep, 'cos if I don't he'd be up half the night. I noticed his door was open, and I thought, that's a bit odd. He always sleeps with the door closed. I went in, and he wasn't in bed. I thought maybe he'd gone to the toilet, but he wasn't there either. I checked all around the upstairs, then I called Emma and we checked all downstairs too. That's when we called the police."

The Doctor nodded. "Did you notice anything missing?"

"Well, his slippers were gone and his dressing gown wasn't there either. But apart from that, nothing."

"And there's not a chance that he could have slipped out without you noticing?"

"No, none." Emma stirred on the couch next to the man. She lifted her head to meet the Doctor's gaze.

"That's not quite true, George. We had our backs to the hallway the whole time. He could have passed us without us seeing." George shrugged.

"I suppose."

"Very well. There's nothing else, nothing at all, that might have been the slightest bit different?"

Emma shook her head. "I don't think so." The Doctor shrugged and stood up, extending his hand towards George.

"Thank you for your time, sir. I promise you, we will find your boy." The other man shook the proffered hand.

"Thank you. If there's anything else you need, we'll be here."

"Of course." Heather stood up with the Doctor, and they walked out of the sitting room and into the hallway. George and Emma watched while she put her shoes on, then they stood up and opened the door. The Doctor stepped out, inhaling the humid air, but Heather hung back in the doorway.

"Emma?"

"Yes?"

"What does Jamie like to do?"

"Well-"

"There isn't anything to show that he even lives here. No stains on the carpet, no toys lying about."

"Well he's very quiet. Keeps himself to himself, mostly."

"And there's nothing, nothing at all that he likes to do?"

Emma stared at her for a second, a slight frown on her face. "Well, no. I mean not really. He used to love football, but now he just stares out of the window most of the time. I leave him to it; it keeps him out of the way, and he's happy. In his own little world."

Heather gave her a very direct glance, but Emma didn't break. She allowed a smile to come on to her face and said, "Thank you. We'll get onto it right away." Emma nodded but didn't say a word. Heather exited through the door after the Doctor, who had opened the umbrella and was waiting expectantly, and they paced together back to the TARDIS.


End file.
